Democracy Now! Blog

The former Marine shot by cops in his apartment died from a single bullet that entered his right arm and ripped through both lungs, according to an autopsy report obtained by the Daily News. The lawyer for Kenneth Chamberlain’s family said the autopsy contradicts the police account of his death.

On the rainy night of Sunday, Feb. 26, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin walked to a convenience store in Sanford, Fla. On his way home, with his Skittles and iced tea, the African-American teenager was shot and killed.

We may never know what drove a U.S. Army staff sergeant to head out into the Afghan night and allegedly murder at least 16 civilians in their homes, among them nine children and three women. The attack has been called tragic, which it surely is. But when Afghans attack U.S. forces, they are called “terrorists.” That is, perhaps, the inconsistency at the core of U.S. policy, that democracy can be delivered through the barrel of a gun, that terrorism can be fought by terrorizing a nation.

Super Tuesday demonstrated the rancor rife in Republican ranks, as the four remaining major candidates slug it out to see how far to the right of President Barack Obama they can go. While attacking him for the high cost of gasoline, both sides are traveling down the same perilous road in their support of nuclear power.

WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website, has again published a massive trove of documents, this time from a private intelligence firm known as Stratfor. Among the emails was a short one-liner that suggested the U.S. government has produced, through a secret grand jury, a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Russ Feingold writes: "The President is wrong to embrace the corrupt corporate politics of Citizens United through the use of Super PACs." As the Obama campaign "dances with the devil" according to Feingold, perhaps as the President’s new election co-chair, he will help us follow the money.

In the wake of the successful pushback against the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, the Obama administration should listen to the majority of Americans: The United States, including Catholics, is strongly pro-choice.

After winning big in Florida, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien who he wants to represent. “You could choose where to focus, you could focus on the rich, that’s not my focus. You could focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus. My focus is on middle-income Americans.” Of the very rich, Romney assures us, “They’re doing just fine.” With an estimated personal wealth of $250 million, Romney should know.

Does Obama’s formation of the new task force aimed at investigating the shoddy mortgage-lending practices that contributed to the financial crisis signify a move to more progressive policies, as MoveOn suggests?

An unprecedented wave of online opposition to the SOPA and PIPA bills before Congress shows the power of a free internet. Today marked the largest online protest in the history of the internet. Websites from large to small "went dark" in protest of proposed legislation before the US House and Senate that could profoundly change the internet.

Ten years ago, Omar Deghayes and Morris Davis would have struck anyone as an odd pair. While they have never met, they now share a profound connection, cemented through their time at the notorious U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

All eyes are on Iowa this week, as the hodgepodge field of Republican contenders seek a win, or at least “momentum,” in the campaign for the party’s presidential nomination. But behind the scenes, a battle is being waged by Republicans—not against each other, but against American voters.

Accused whistle-blower Pvt. Bradley Manning turned 24 Saturday. He spent his birthday in a pretrial military hearing that could ultimately lead to a sentence of life … or death. Manning stands accused of causing the largest leak of government secrets in United States history.

The U.N.‘s 17th “Conference of Parties,” or COP 17, negotiations were extended, virtually nonstop, through Sunday, in hopes of avoiding complete failure. But despite optimistic pronouncements to the contrary, many believe the Kyoto Protocol died in Durban.

There is a growing consensus here at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, that the United States is the main impediment to progress at these crucial talks. The fossil-fuel industry exerts enormous influence over the U.S. government, and over the U.S. public, with tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and PR campaigns to shape public opinion. Scientists and activists here and around the world are urging the negotiators to, "Listen to the People, Not the Polluters."

DN! In Depth

By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan — The corporate television newscasts spend more and more time covering the increasingly disruptive, costly and at times deadly weather. But they consistently fail to make the link between extreme weather and climate change.